The Mises Curriculum is the best online resource available for self-motivated learners who want a comprehensive education in sound, free-marekt economics from the ground up. Everything discussed below and more is included in the Curriculum, which only costs $99/year.
You are free to take as many or as few courses as you like, and in whatever order suits you. But, for those who want to systematically approach their economics education, the courses have been developed to flow in a logical progression.
First, there are three introductory courses by David Gordon. In Economic Reasoning, Dr. Gordon uses his own guidebook for students, An Introduction to Economic Reasoning, to teach you how to think like an economist. And, to give you practice, he takes you through examples selected from the highly accessible bestseller Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt. By the end of the course, you’ll be better at spotting economic fallacies than 99% of the country (and many professional economists, too!).
In Why Capitalism?, Dr. Gordon presents in broad strokes Ludwig von Mises’s picture of the market economy. He does this, using Mises’s most accessible works: popular lectures the great teacher delivered to American laymen. You will learn what a marvelous system true capitalism is, be taught its most characteristic features, and get a basic idea of how it functions.
In Broken Capitalism, Dr. Gordon continues to draw from Mises’s accessible works to show the Misesian view of intervention: what happens when the state shatters the harmony of the market.
Once you’ve gone through Dr. Gordon’s stimulating overview, you’ll be ready for a systematic tour of sound economics. In three included courses, Dr. Robert P. Murphy walks the student through every single chapter of his textbook Lessons for the Young Economist. These courses and textbook are excellent for teens, but adults who want a really solid foundation will also get a lot out of them. In Basics of Economics: Action and Exchange, Dr. Murphy teaches the basic principles of human action and the logic of prices. In Basics of Economics: Introduction to the Free Market, he shows how individual exchanges interrelate to form the profit-and-loss system that guides the miracles of coordinated production that only capitalism is capable of. And in Basics of Economics: Government Intervention, he explains why socialism, government inflation, price controls, and all other forms of market intervention only cause chaos and suffering. Busy and want the abridged version? Well the Curriculum also includes a single course by Dr. Murphy that covers selected chapters of the textbook, called Principles of Economics.
Need something that also serves as a systematic introduction to Austrian economics, but is more advanced and faster-paced? Adults and advanced students will love this pair of included courses taught by leading Austrian economists: Austrian Microeconomics taught by preeminent micro specialist Dr. Peter G. Klein and Austrian Macroeconomics taught by preeminent macro specialist Dr. Joseph T. Salerno
Or do you want a foundation in Austrian economics that is both exhaustive and advanced? Then there is absolutely no substitute for Murray Rothbard’s economics treatise Man, Economy, and State. And the Curriculum includes three courses by Dr. Murphy that will walk you through every single chapter of that book.
- Praxeology Through Price Theory
- Production and the Market Process
- Money, Monopoly, and Market Intervention
And to really round out your understanding of Austrian economics, let Dr. Gordon guide you through selected chapters from Ludwig von Mises’s great work Human Action. Learn the philosophy and social theory that underpins the Austrian view of the market society with Human Action: Austrian Economics & Philosophy and Human Action: Austrian Sociology. And go deeper into Mises’s monetary theory with Dr. Murphy’s Mises on Money and Banking.
Next, want to learn about the prehistory of all the wisdom you’ve absorbed? Explore Murray Rothbard’s fascinating Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought with David Gordon in his courses Economic Thought Through the Ages and Classical Economics. Follow the adventure of free market and libertarian thought from Aristotle to Bastiat.
Want to go further into advanced topics? The pinnacle of Austrian theory, where all the threads come together, is Austrian monetary and business cycle theory, which you can explore with the following two courses:
- Understanding Monetary Chaos with Dr. Salerno
- Bubbles, Booms, and Busts with Dr. Mark Thornton
Finally, want to apply all that awesome theory you’ve mastered to understand crucial episodes in economic history (including very recent history)? Then take any of these courses covering the economics of the 20th Century, with Robert P. Murphy:
- The Economics of the Great Depression
- The Economics of ObamaCare
- Anatomy of the Fed
- Adventures in Energy Economics
If you attentively work through this program, even if you skip several courses (and especially if you take the quizzes to test your learning), it is no exaggeration to say that you will probably understand economics better than most Ivy League economists. What is more, you will have an amazing lens through which to clearly see the economic world around you.
And this is only one half of the Mises Curriculum! It also includes courses on political philosophy and history from still more top scholars. So, sign up today!
Also published at Mises.org and Medium.com: